The Barn

Death of a Naturalist- 1966

Number of poems dealing with childhood
Barn terrified Heaney as a child
Metaphor for adulthood- uncontrollable danger
Heaney still connects to childhood fear- first person narration (I lay face down),
direct address of reader (cobwebs clogging your lungs), vivid imagery
Five quatrains- fear intensifies throughout- two lugged sacks with threshed
corn become two lugged sacks (use of repetition for contrast) move in like
great blind rats- military language, simile, other poems in Death of a Naturalist
denote fear of vermin- An Advancement of Learning
Tone of Fear
Mood- unchanging- menace, vulnerability and repulsion
Inaccuracy of bucolic images
ABAB half rhyme- not quite right
adjectives- rusty mouse grey, smooth, chilly- vermin and death; gilded
(juxtapose)- precious light
Simile comparing corn to ivory- barn repository of treasure- sinister nature of
ivory trade
Simile of hot zinc oven- sinister, claustrophobic; great blind rats
monosyllabic, three blind mice; and use of sibilance solid as cement cold and
tomb
Sibilance scythes edge, clean spade, a pitchforks prongs- menacing

The Settle Bed

Seeing Things (1991)- Four poems dealing with Northern Ireland
Peace Process in sight- ceasefire in 1994
Inheritance can be a burden- Storage unit, bed, bench- poor and cumbersomemix of cultures not working well together
Optimistic mood- inherited out of its time beliefs always be reimagined to fit
society
Tercets with irregular line length- slow pace- difficult to read, structure metaphor
for settle bed
Hyphenated words prevent momentum
No rhyme- disruption of community by violence- no meshing
w consonance- density- burden
Plosive Bible, beads both communities weighed down- juxtaposition- differences
will remain
Colloquialisms och- no real compassion or sorrow for violence
Tonal shirt yet stanza three- contrast between my ear shuttered up and I
hear- wont just accept inheritance and begins to listen to other side of the story
Repetition of again and again- relentlessness of tradition

A Drink of Water
Field Work (1979)- part of a series of six elegies
Four sabbatical years in country- listen to the music of what happens
Old bat reconfigured to muse
Octave- coming to well; Sestet- giving the inspiration

Heaney drinking from her well

Use of Shakespearean Sonnet- Validity of rural culture; uses longer linesreimagines
Rhythm- iambic pentameter- occasional six or eleven syllables- non traditional
Rhyme- Shakespearean Sonnet- ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
Mood is slightly malevolent- warning to stay true to source
Sound- Use of onomatopoeia- clatter- adds realism; Personification- whooping
cough ; Musical language, slow diminuendo; treble; High pitched- creaked
Negative, anthropomorphic simile- old bat
Colour imagery grey pocked white enamel- rural depravity
Alliterative dipped to drink- use of creative source highlighted
Fading off the lip image- water gone- transcending the ordinary
The Skunk
Written in Berkeley- Heaney missing his wife
Strange comparison drawn between wife and skunk- mixes ordinary and
mysterious- affectionately humorous view of wife- so lovely skunk becomes
romantic
Use of six quatrains
Simile like the chasuble religious quality- reverence for his wife
Use of personification skunk tail paraded desk light softened whinniedprocessional
Use of broad a o assonance- softened beyond the verandah.// Small oranges
loomed in the orange tree- purity
Enjambment- earth and air//of California- passion
Sensory Image- Tang mouthful of wine inhaling you off a cold pillow
Use of neologism sootfall
Conflates wife and skunk- more appropriate for wife- Voyeur intent and
glamorous
Mythologized, demythologized- American z- oxymoronic, simultaneously exalts
and undercuts wife
Sexy black plunge line with head down, tail up Derry turf image
The Forge
Door into the Dark (1969)- poem gives collection its title
Preposition into idea of unknown
Title relates to blacksmith workshop- pun, verb to forge and noun of workshop
Sonnet- not Shakespearean or Italian- no set rhyme scheme- creative process is
progressive; Likens to Blacksmiths work which is also unpredictable
Simile horned as a unicorn magical element of place of creation- manual equal
to creative
Door into the dark alliteration- radoxical- dark past, dark self, dark artistryexploration
Metaphor- fantail of sparks short pitched ring hiss when a new shoe- visual
imagery, onomatopoetic language
Anvil- alter metaphor- sacred quality, like desk

Blacksmith expends himself creating shape and music Heaney creates

structure and musicality of rhyme, rhythm, assonance, consonance, alliteration
and onomatopoeia
Gruff and realistic presentation- hairs in nose grunts- Heaney known for South
Derry rhymes guttural language and rural topics
Bogland
Door into the Dark (1969)- Part of Opened Ground poems
Title- sense of place- bog significant feature of Irish landscape
Past and history encoded into the land- Bog is symbol of Irish psyche and historyDeep, dark, long
Stayed summer with T. P. Flanagan- landcape painter in Gort a Choirc in Donegalwild landscapes
We Our pronoun- Poets part in Irish culture
Americanisation slice a big sun sibilance- American destruction; Theyve,
Theyll never clear distinction; anti industrialisation- pioneers contrast
Cyclops eye Great Irish Elk mythical, slightly sinister quality
Black butter- plosive- fecundity and density of land- simile soft as pulp
palpable
Kind adjective, feminine qualities of the land
keeps crusting anaerobic, unique soil, not pretty but wild and beautiful
Falling rhyme- sun/skeleton under/butter- delving down deep
camped on before bottomless- rich in history- limitless inspiration
7 quatrains with artesian verse structure, use of enjambment-digging through
layers of bogland
The Strand at Lough Beg
Field Work (1979) One of six Elegies
Colum McCartney- Second Cousin to Heaney killed by loyalist paramilitaries in
1975
Epigraph- Dante is literary connection with death and Purgatory- quasi sacred
link; use of symbolism of virgil wiping grime of Hell from Dantes face
Title- large expanse of flat, grass land- pastoral idyll is literary conventiongaining clarity/benefiting from restorative quality- quiet polluted with violence
(blood and roadside muck in your hair and eyes- lack of dignity) and murdernegative litany of adjectives acrid, brassy, genital, ejected
sense of isolation leaving own territory; white glow and lonely street lamps to
Newtonhamilton
ascending the hills alone up the pilgrims track- heaven allusion
Hellish imagery- Goat-beards and dogs eyes in a demon pack red lampviolence
Listing Engine, voices, heads hooded and h alliteration- panic, confusion
Madness and futility of sectarian murder- allusion to Sweeney Astray myth- a
poet caught in midst of atrocity- like McCartney, a non-violent Nationalist- gentle
nature highlighted, fought shy, could not crack the whip or seize the day
scared to find spent cartridges
Prophesises own death- fear of duck shooters- tragedy increased

Use of rhetorical questions- family desire to know- lack of knowledge or

understanding
Use of pronoun denoting kinship you and yours and yours and mine
Use of alliteration and pathetic fallacy drowning the dew mourning of family
Move from past to present tense- meeting Colum in death
Catholic anointing process- cold handfuls of the dew//To wash you, cousin
Use of full rhyme- move towards finality, avoids sing song by not using
throughout + ABBA while maintaining musicality of language cloud/shroud
flat/plait
The Other Side
Wintering Out (1972)- one of first poems dealing with religious division in
Northern Ireland
Explores political and religious division in Northern Ireland- suggested by title
stream as symbol of division
Biblical reference in simile, poor as Lazarus Protestant- bible; Juxtapose lea
with fallow
chosen people Biblical also; Calvinist Theology of predestination, his promised
furrows
Black and white nature of Calvinist Theology- imagery of Black thorn white
haired whitewashed
moss and rushes awareness of perceived inferiority of Catholics
fabulous admiration adjective
He prophesised- righteousness condescension
wake of pollen//drifting to our bank, next seasons tares- Parable of the
Sower/dependency
criticises Protestant and Catholic religion, patriarchal dictum rosary was
dragging mournfully on
Protestant as bleak, austere, worship orientated, whitewashed kitchen
Wants to give impression of nonchalance- loneliness caused by division- I was
dandering by
Tonal shift- into present tense- feeling of intrusion highlights division
lovemaking weeping
Poem ends with question- links still tentative- ambiguity- no real commitment
Man and Boy
Seeing Things (1991)
Heaney effects a connection with his father by telescoping three generations of
fathers and sons. His access to his own fathers death is ventured through his
fathers experience with his fathers death
Combines images of past and future; Heaney is old man carried away by his
father as a boy- collapse of male generations to achieve a sense of equality and
fluidity (suggested by the river)
Direct speech, creates sense of Character
Critical Tone- sense of boredom old, and heavy/And predictable; use of clich
Bobs your uncle
Made him afraid wed take too much for granted wisdom of tradition
Heaneys use of unfavourable compound adjectives exalt daily life and realism

Blessed be- beatitudes allusion, religious imagery; celebrate life; exclamatory,

litany style- celebrates balance- man to boy/boy to man balance
Could make a splash like the salmon- simile, source of respect and awe- riverfluidity of memory
Oxymoronic language, As big as a wee pork pig- good humoured
Poet evokes rural background in second section- mower and perfect circle
idyllic, dream like image- memory; surreal
I feel first person- heat and hurry alliteration- present in moment
piggyback childish word- man becomes child and back again
Heaney alludes to Virgils Aeneid- Aeneas carries his father Anchises from the
ruins of Troy, Like a witless elder rescued from the fire
The Wifes Tale
Door into the Dark (1969)- one of several poems conveying interdependence of
men and women
Dramatic monologue featuring a female speaker
Female speaker is actual and a portrayal of the land as feminine, providing for
men
Title- nameless wife, takes identity from husband- Heaney gives a voice
Feminine domesticity through linen cloth
Masculinity- hum and gulp personification, onomatopoeia, Crunching the
stubble- u assonance. Plosive big belt alliteration- contrast between femininite
land and masculine industrialisation
Use of imperative Give these fellows theirs unidentified- focus on couple- wifes
hospitality
Use of parenthesis to clarify praise of wifes work by husband
call for clothes alliteration- doesnt embrace his femininity
He winked familiarity, uxorious behaviour; reciprocated slices that he likes
Away over there and look- seeks her praise- equality
Undercuts herself Even when I dont know what to look for when she knows
exactly hard as shot
Detailed, precise evocation of male work, as javelins simile evoking symbols of
masculinity
So I belonged no further to the work- passive tone; contrast between male and
female
End rhyme last stanza- harmonious, idyllic setting
Form irregular- seven/twelve/seven/nine line stanza- not set rhyme scheme
Exposure
North- final poem in anthology
Ironically ambiguous title- refers to public role as poet and to sense of
vulnerability from attempting to engage with political conflict and who bears
weight of community expectations

The Ministry of Fear